I found this pile of the first five Goddess Girls in our little free library and took them with me right away for our school‘s library. They look very appealing and are still pretty new, I hope the students will like them.

This one fits neatly into my accidental collection of Kinsella books. I remember getting my first Kinsella on backpacking trip in Australia from a frellow backpacker 20 years ago. Then I bought some the Shopaholic books myself but mostly got the others from little free libraries. This one was okay but reminded me very much of the first shopaholic.

A little bit of comfort reading in the dark, cold winter. 🥶 Kinsella‘s books always make me feel light-hearted. ❤️‍🔥

I like the Horrible Histories a lot, they are funny and very informative at the same time. As a teacher I even laugh at the teacher‘s jokes. And language-wise they ar enot that difficult for learners.

Some light and funny reading after some heavy stuff. The powers of the druids made me laugh. 🤣🤪🤣

While reading it something already felt familiar. 🙈 I got this older version of a book I already own and have read 20 years ago from a little free library. Of course realized it after (re)reading it. Happens to me a lot lately, but shows that my interests stayed the same. 🙈 This is a semi-scientific try to prove that there actually is a curse of Tutenchamun. There are interesting facts and stories in it, but overall it cannot prove anything.

Having a bice cup of tea in my favourite cafe - surrounded by plants because it is part of a gardening shop. 😊

After reading the English original of The Seven Dials Mystery as an ebook I realized that I own the German one alreeady. 🙈 So I read the translation as well. It is not as funny as the original but still good. I didn‘t get why they translated the title to The Last Joker, doesn‘t fit it all.

I enjoyed this one very much. I was laughing a lot in the scenes with Lord Caterham and liked Bundles unconventional way of tackling things. And of course I did not see the end coming. 🙈

One can definitely see, which genre and reading circles is was in this year. The total is fine for me, most books being read in the school holidays. During school time I don‘t have a clear head to read much.

Anybody else thinks Lord Caterham is hilarious? 🤣🤣🤣

Of course I am reading the background information on Poirot again. 🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♂️

Trying to get back on track with the monthly Agatha Christie reading. Even though I like Hastings, he was not as missed as expected because Katherine made a good sidekick. It is a good story, but I don‘t like how Christie/Poirot sometimes uses information we as the reader don‘t get and can‘t come up with the solution on our own - not that it often happens to me. 🤣

Got this one from a little free library. I‘ve already read a few other novels by Harris e.g., Pompeij and did not get disappointed. I read this one in two days because it was so exciting. This novel definitely shows that ambition sometimes lies deep in ourselves concealed even from our own feelings and crawling its way out without us realizing.

Haven‘t watched the movie yet because I wanted to read the book first. And I have to say so far, Robert Harris never disappoints. I cannot put it away.

Darrow lived through the darkest of the nights only to rise like the morning star to fight against his enemies - and former friends. There are some plot twist I had to listen to twice because I couldn‘t grasp it the first time. The ending was a major cliffhanger and I am definitely listening to the next one.

This is what happens when you add the seven books you got as presents for Christmas to your to-read-pile… 🤪🤪🤪 I definitely need a second table or to improve my stacking skills. 🙈🙈🙈

This Nancy Drew story was definitely better than the last ones. The different plot lines somehow made sense and were woven into each other more fittingly. I especially liked the background information on Chinese pottery. 🐲🐉

I don‘t recall the girls using that kind of language in the other 25 stories that much. 🤔🤔🤔

Definitely not The Hunger Games anymore! Even though there are a lot battles being fought and normally am not that much into war games kind of stuuf, I am completely absorbed by this series. Haven‘t heard something that thrilling in a long time. The narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds is worth every penny.

I am torn between the interesting settings like New Orleans and a haunted mansion and the adventures like the quicksand that overdid it again. 🙈

… SEVERAL UNRELATED EVENTS … COULD THERE BE ANY CONNECTION? 🙄🙄🙄

Seems like I am a little late for this hype. 🙈 This one started off as a free giveaway by Audible and ended up having me buying the whole series because I couldn‘t listen to all of them in time. 🙈 It has been a long time that I have been this absorbed by a YA dystopian novel, even though the first one is quite similar to the Hunger Games. I still loved it.

The first one of the series and the second I‘ve read and I must say they are hilarious! I will go through all of them! 🤣

And after that it was repeated every five years. So, the older you get, the fitter you needed to be as a pharao. 𓁈𓁈𓁈

Having read some dystopian young adult novels, I must say The Maze Runner is weaker conpared to other ones. The characters don‘t have the chance to be developed and already everything is falling into pieces. I didn‘t get as absorbed as I normally do. It will be the first ans last book of the series for me.

Even though there was finally only one narrative it was oozing with stereotypes and weird incidents as well. Overall, it was quite frustrating because the narrative wasn‘t pushed forward, but Nancy was feeling the same.

Trying to get back on track with my monthly reading. 🙈🙈🙈

Somehow a coming off age story connected by mountains. Even though the novel is advertised as a story of the friendship of Pietro and Bruno, I thought is is the story of Pietro emancipating himself from his father. But both stories ar econnected through the Italian Alps which are a nice theme in the background.

🏔️🏔️🏔️

After reading A History of Great Britain in Ten Enemies and liking it, I had to get something else by Terry Deary and ordered the whole box of Rotten Histories for my students. It is a humorous way to explain important stations in history and they are easy to read for English learners. Since they have been published in the 90ies some of the information is not up-to-date anymore, but that doesn‘t reduce the fun.

Which rotten Roman emperor is the one we are looking fot? 🏛️🏛️🏛️

Nowadays most people think that the only two civilzations that made the West are the Romans and the Greek, but this non-fictional )audio)book proves them wrong. There have been Egyptians, Asyrians, Minoans and many more. Even though I already knew a lot of the information because I am fascinated by ancient civilisations in general, this book gives and extensive overview and a lot of interesting, sometimes funny facts and stories.

Even though the story of a family on the run was quite interesting, especially how it influenced the kids. The reason for their escape seemed a bit dubios to me. In the end it is father terrorizing a family. Again the story is interesting, but the writing is a bit boring.

What a life? Living in Tel Aviv, on Cyprus and in Virginia. But at what cost? All within 3 years.

“A beautiful woman and a handsome thief must unravel the mysteries of an age-old technology to stop a fanatical cult from unleashing an evil that threatens to destroy all the water in the world.” Wow, I have never read such a ln exaggerated blurb. Fortunately, I didn‘t read it otherwise I might not have listen to this audiobook. If you tone it down, it is still a wonderful science fiction story about a pair of youngster who were thrown together by

What was supposed to be a wonderful summer on a nice farm after the war, starts as a miserable stay for Tobias on the wet cliffs of a remote island with only grumpy Lothe to talk to. But there‘s a locked up room that might be the reason for her grumpiness. Can Tobias warm up Lothe‘s heart and solve the mystery? - What a beautifully illustrated book and sad, but wonderful story. I cried in the end - even if it is “only” a children‘s story.

After some very stressful weeks, I thought I was only able to read “easier” stories. I found this beautiful children‘s book in our little free library and well… it is not that shallow. 🙈

When I found another Kingfisher audiobook on Audible for free, I was thrilled. I liked A wizard‘s Guide to Defensive Baking a lot and most parts of the Saint of Steel series were okay as well. But I has to quit this one because all the unnerving things of the Saints series were quadrupled. Both main characters are so insecure I wanted to hit them, it made me physically ache. And this time the backstory wasn‘t that strong to make up for it. 🤦‍♀️

See you next year. 😊😊😊

As a German English teacher I really like reading Agatha Christie. It definitely expands my vocabulary. 💪💪💪

This has been a wonderful, very poetic book. It describes the life of two kids born in and off the desert one hundered years apart. Both face struggles and end up back where they belong - in the desert. This book is a beautiful allegory of the desert, I haven‘t been something that aesthetic in a long time.

Last days on the beach. ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Audible does definitely have a good strategy: They get you hooked up with free audiobooks, but sometimes I am not able to finish them till the due date. Of corse now I will buy it. 🙈😜🙈

This is a fast-paced coming off age story of a German girl trying to cope with her alcoholic mother. It somehow reminded me of depressive version of Soloalbum, which was written in the aame form 20 years ago. I can understans why German peoplw hyped 22 Bahnen when it came out, but I am not sure if I will read it again and keep it.

I escaped the European autumn weather and went to my old home Egypt for more sun. 😊

This is a very interesting non-fictional overview over Anne‘s life. Because I only watched the different semi-ficituonal series about Henry VIII‘s life, I never realized it took Anne eight years to be married ti the king. On TV it always happens in a shorter amount of time. And in the end she was only married to hin for three years. Seems like the moment he actually had her, he lost interest.

Some background reading: Aldeidge mentions that The Big Four was thrown together shortly after Christie‘s breakdown while she wasn‘t able to write another novel. No wonder it ended up like this.

This didn‘t feel like a Poirot murder mystery at all, more like a James Bond against the world. It can be felt that some short stories were thrown in together with some linking devices to get a new full-length novel. I think I would have preferred the short stories instead.

„it has always seemed to me extraordinary that a woman should go so far in the scientific world. I should have thought a purely masculine brain was needed for such work.“ - Sometimes I do not like Hastings at all. 😡